Buies Creek, N.C. – On Friday, May 8, Campbell Law School closed a chapter in its 33-year history with the last graduation in Buies Creek, North Carolina before its fall 2009 relocation to downtown Raleigh.
As 95 new lawyers crossed the stage at Campbell University’s John W. Pope, Jr. Convocation Center, the celebration focused on this year’s distinguished class of graduates and the significance of the Law School’s Buies Creek roots.
Speaking on behalf of Campbell Law’s 1979 Charter Class, several of whom were in attendance, Wake County District 10 Judge Jane Gray noted she and her fellow classmates took a chance on Campbell Law – and it was a good gamble. “There could be no better bookends than the classes of ’79 and ’09 to contain the story of Campbell Law in Buies Creek,” said Judge Gray.
North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert Holt Edmunds delivered the commencement address, congratulating the candidates on three years of hard work and highlighting the importance of fellow students – now colleagues. “Until the last 2009 Campbell Law graduate retires, you’re all in this together,” emphasized Justice Edmunds.
Student Bar Association President Sam Fleder took the stage to deliver graduation remarks and present Dean Melissa Essary with a framed aerial photo of the Law School’s Buies Creek location from the ’09 class.
Dean Essary closed the ceremony stating, “This class, this group, you’ve already changed Campbell Law School, you now have the opportunity to change the world – and you will.”
Local television station WRAL covered the event. A video of the report can be seen here http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/5110986/.
About Campbell Law School: Since its founding in 1976, the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University has developed lawyers who possess moral conviction, social compassion and professional competence, and who view the law as a calling to serve others and create a more just society. The School has been recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA) as having the nation’s top Professionalism Program and by the American Academy of Trial Lawyers for having the nation’s best Trial Advocacy Program. In 2008, the Law School’s Moot Court Program was ranked in the top ten nationally by the University of Houston’s Blakely Advocacy Institute among 196 ABA accredited law schools. Campbell Law boasts more than 3,000 alumni, including 2,000 who reside and work in North Carolina. For the past 20 years, Campbell Law’s record of success on the North Carolina bar exam is unsurpassed by any other North Carolina law school. In the fall of 2009, Campbell Law School will relocate from the main Campbell University campus to a new location in downtown Raleigh. For more information, please visit law.campbell.edu.
Courtesy of law.campbell.edu